The co-leads for the PASCAL International Observatory strands surrounding cultural activities and engagement met on 11 November via zoom in order to update activities of the group in two main strands- namely the Learning Cities Network (LCN) and the Special Interest Group (SIG) in this area.

First, the Learning Cities Network- led by Henrik Zipsane and supported by Maggie Jago and Catherine Lido (under Rob Marks wider LCN guidance), was newly badges as the LCN in Museums Heritage and Education  Thus far, this LCN has accomplished successful educational partnerships and collaborations, culminating in the submission of a collaborative international bid for Erasmus funding (details forthcoming), as well as several successful conferences and workshops (including those held at Jamtli and Ljubljana previously published on the PASCAL website). Through this LCN, the work of the European Museums Academic (EMA) has featured prominently and has been involved in a project in collaboration with the University of Padua where we have collected impressions and articles on how museums world-wide have reacted digitally to the pandemic. Finally, the work of this LCN was promoted in a UNESCO briefing paper on digital inclusion (soon to be published) co-authored by Catherine Lido, with Lavinia Hirsu and Bridgett Wessels.

The team reflected on these accomplishments, and discussed strategies moving forward from a potential successful European Erasmus Masters collaboration, which would offer expansion into a wider network of diver stakeholders- museums, research, councils, and cultural organisations (for which EMA, Smithsonian and the Erasmus partners would naturally form core).

Future progress from the LCN included future proposals for pre-sessional type summer schools being planned as perhaps complementary to our taught PGT programmes, or open to partner organisations as either pre-sessional or visiting ‘exchange’ short courses. Ideally, such potential future offerings could be offered as face to face opportunities, which could boost cultural tourism, but also blended and/ or wholly online for a more global reach.

In conclusion, the LCN in Museums Heritage an Education continues to work on building a core of diverse stakeholders, and which we hope to invite by invitation to regular bi-monthly themed webinars/ meetings in 2021. Such webinar meetings will bring together academics, but also those in museums and heritage organisations, local governments from specific regions, public sector workers, third/ charity/ social enterprise contacts and private/ entrepreneurial with an interest in cultural heritage and museums education but adult and lifelong learning in the area of culture more broadly.

The second main stranded work is the PASCAL SIG concerned with Cultural Heritage and Cultural Literacy for Inclusive Societies (with papers and outputs already featured on the PASCAL website), which is led by Catherine Lido and Henrik Zipsane but also supported by Maggie Jago. The group reflected on the papers, conference presentations, and multiple funding bids produced by the group thus far (approx. six H2020 collaborative funding applications to date) and PhD studentships in the area. It was noted that in contrast to the LCN, the SIG is more academic in nature but closely tied to our UIL work as well- publications, policy documents, conference papers, and funding bids.  We anticipate 2021 meetings for the SIG to be less regular and mainly surrounding the preparation of impactful outputs above.

Please do contact us if you wish to be involved in either the work of the PASCAL Culture LCN or Sig, as we seek to identify diverse regions and stakeholders to join our meetings and webinars.  Please follow us on Twitter @obspascal and @CatherineLido as we continue to promote the important work of the PASCAL International Observatory in Museums Heritage and Education, as well as Cultural Policy and Literacy domains.